Gaufres De Liege

I am one of the lucky few who have been to Belgium and have actually tasted these bad boys in real life. On the streets of Charleroi I introduced them to Todd, and he agreed they are amazing! I have been looking for a recipe for years, literally since 2009ish. I found this one about a year ago, and decided I would save up for a better waffle maker, well I forgot to save up for one and last week I had a real hankering for a guafre. I had already bought some pearl sugar a while back and so I needed a waffle iron and quick! I am still going to save up for a better one, but they turned out pretty stinken good! They are LOTS and lots, and lots, and lots of work, but I followed the recipe to the T (other than the waffle iron) and these turned out amazing! It was like I was on the streets of Charleroi with Todd again, and my house smelled like the waffle place where we got them, it was a win win! (as a bonus they were almost better the second day reheated on the waffle iron, because the sugar wasn't so hard on my brace face teeth)
I got the recipe from here, and the guy is super hard core about his waffles. I am going to paste his instructions with a few of the pictures I took. If you have a few days where you aren't doing much, whip up a batch of these bad boys! ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS
makes 5 Gaufres de Liège (So I doubled it, because who goes through all that work for 5!!!)

• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup scalded whole milk at 110-115 degrees
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. of water at 110-115 degrees
• 2 cups King Arthur Bread flour
• 1 large room temperature egg, lightly beaten
• 1Tbsp. + 1 tsp. light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 8 1/2 Tbsp. soft room temperature unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup Belgian Pearl Sugar 

DIRECTIONS

1. Place yeast, milk, and water into the work-bowl of a stand mixer. Stir for a few seconds to moisten the yeast.

2. Add the egg and 2/3 of a cup of the flour. Mix to blend. Scrape down sides of bowl.

3. Sprinkle remaining 1 and 1/3 cups of flour over the mixture, but do not stir it in. Cover and let stand 75-90 minutes (at the end of that time, you’ll notice the batter bubbling up through the cover of flour).

4. Add brown sugar and salt to the work-bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed (speed #2) – just to blend.

5. With machine on low, add honey and vanilla. Then add 2 Tbsp. of butter at a time. Mix 4 minutes at medium-low speed; scrape down sides once or twice in that period. Let the dough rest for 1 minute and then continue to mix for 2 minutes. If you measured your ingredients perfectly, the dough will be sticking to the sides of the bowl in the last minute of mixing and then, in the last 30 seconds of so, will start to ball-up on the paddle. If this does not happen, let the dough rest for 1 more minute and mix for another 2 minutes.

6. Scrape the dough into a large bowl, sprinkle lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 4 hours. This step is crucial for developing the flavor.

7. REFRIGERATE FOR 30 MINUTES BEFORE PROCEEDING TO STEP #8. This is essential. The yeast respiration must be slowed before continuing.

8. Stir the dough down (meaning: gently deflate the gases from the dough, by pressing on it with a rubber spatula), scrape it onto a piece of plastic wrap, and then use the spatula to press the dough into a long rectangle. Fold that rectangle over on itself (by thirds – like a letter) so that you have a square of dough. Wrap it in plastic, weigh it down a bit (I put a gallon of milk on mine) and refrigerate overnight.

9. The next day, place the cold dough (it will be quite firm) in a large bowl and add all of the pearl sugar to a bowl. It will seem like a lot of sugar, but it’s supposed to be :) Mix it into the dough by hand until the chunks are well-distributed. Once mixed, divide the dough into 5 pieces of equal size.

10. Shape each chunk into an oval ball (like a football without the pointy ends) and let it rise (covered loosely in plastic wrap) for 90 minutes.

11. If you have a professional waffle iron (meaning: it’s cast iron and weighs over 20 pounds) cook at exactly 365-370 degrees (the max temp before sugar begins to burn/decompose) for approximately 2 minutes.** Give each waffle a few minutes to cool slightly before eating. No syrup or toppings are needed, unless you’d like to add some fruit or a dusting of powdered sugar; they’re quite sweet on their own.

** If you have a regular waffle iron, heat the iron to 420 degrees (hint: many regular waffle irons go up to and over 550 degrees at their highest setting) , place the dough on the iron, and immediately unplug it or turn the temp dial all the way down. Otherwise, the sugar will burn.

If you have a fabulous waffle iron, you basically wont have any sugar granules left. Ours were good with them in the waffle, but a better iron will caramelize all of the sugar, they were still pretty dang good! 

Corbyn LOVED them!

As a PS, wahoo! this is my 100th post! What a great post for 100 too!